(USA) - In-Finite Beauty (World Premiere)

Kristi and Adrian will move in a sacred space to explore, together with the audience, the essence of beauty...that which is hidden within, as they create a ritual of birth, confrontation, cleansing and renewal. In-Finite Beauty to us means the boundlessness of beauty contained inside in the finite human experience. How do we contain the infinite expanse of beauty inside the finite structure of the human identity? Learn More

AguaClara Flamenco andSF Flamenco Dance Company

(USA) - ¿Dónde Está Don Quixote?

The whole family will delight in this madcap adventure to the heart of Flamencolandia. A spirited troupe of flamencos hot on the trail of Don Quixote embark on a journey filled with colorful characters, dazzling footwork and silly sing alongs. Learn More

(South Korea) - Rhythm of Human (2013, US Premiere)

em>Rhythm of Human expresses the modern Korean man, who represents the individual that seeks his own rhythm within society. Dance transforms simple movements into expressions of life’s rhythm. Dancing is not only for dancers; we all live as though dancing. Learn More

(USA) - Down by the Riverside: Requiem for a King (World Premiere)

A full evening on music led by composer and Smithsonian Associate Scholar Dr. Anthony Brown. The first half of the concert will feature Brown’s Go For Broke dedicated to the celebrated 442nd Infantry Regiment. Following this will be the world premiere of Down by the Riverside. Learn More

artpaul cartier

(USA) - Linking Arms (World Premiere)

Linking Arms is a silent montage of occurrences and happenings during and around the Civil Rights struggle of 1968, including local incidents such as the San Francisco State University student strike for Black (and Brown) Studies curricula. It will also include a selected chronology of Pro-Democracy and Civil Rights landmark events from 1968 up to the present, including the Women's March in San Francisco in January 2018. Learn More

Bahiya Movement

(USA) - Weighted Acceptance (2016)

Weighted Acceptance is a collaboration of dance, music and poetic storytelling that explores the many inter-sectional oppression faced by People Of Color. This multidisciplinary performance piece, seeks to heal urban communities by deepening the understanding of weights People Of Color collectively share and carry. Learn More

Director Wataru Kitao established Baobab in 2009. For each works, Kitao casts suitable dancers and actors regardless of career or features. “Sometimes they are talking, singing, laughing a lot and often crying".Learn More

Copeland returns to his San Leandro wellspring to recount the story of Stuart Alexander, scion of the sausage manufacturing dynasty, and tells how the factory owner, guns blazing, murdered three government meat inspectors who had the audacity to insist on inspecting his factory, despite his strong objections.Learn More

(USA) - The One Truthiness

In this unique and intimate performance, witness a painting come to life in response to a text read aloud by the audience. Levin uses melted wax to create illuminated images on a large piece of glass that change with the direction of light. The text blends personal interviews and other quotes reflecting how our individual truths map against each other. Learn More

(USA) - The Hidden Histories of Fort Mason, Black Point and North Shore (2017)

For this special San Francisco International Arts Festival tour, we begin in the shadow of the Fontana Towers at Van Ness and Bay and will conclude at the Fort Mason gates. During our excursion we’ll traverse the grounds of the old military base and discover histories of farms, soldiers, waterways, and World’s Fairs. Chris Carlsson will regale you with overlooked stories that still shape the San Francisco of today. Learn More

Experience the dark world of prohibition era Quebec for a spellbinding evening of circus, burlesque and live music. Talented artists from underground circus in Montreal offer a night of transgression and rebelling against prohibition in a universe where organized crime rules. Immerse yourself in the mystery and decadence of The Roaring Twenties. Learn More

Dandelion / Bandelion

(USA) - We Are All Dragons in Drag (World Premiere)

Date and Time: Wednesday, May 30, 8:00pm; Friday, June 1, 7:00pm; Saturday June 2 2:00pm; Sunday June 3 7:00pmDuration: 60 mins, without intermission.)Location: FirehouseTicket Information: Early Bird $15General Admission $25There is great power locked inside each of us, and it can be harnessed as a tool of transformation. We Are All Dragons in Drag merges inclusive dance, music, storytelling, ritual, Drag, outrageousness—and opportunities for accessible audience participation to call forth connections to primal power. Learn More

De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association

(USA) - Christo Moreno (World Premiere)

Cristo Moreno is a criollo musical theatrical adaptation of the story of El Señor de Los Milagros, patron saint of Lima that highlights the importance of the African legacy in Peru. From their arrival in slave ships to the Angolan slave who painted a black Christ on a mud brick wall in the 17th century to the procession in which tens of thousands of people participate to this day. Learn More

Dina Zarif Ensemble

(USA)

Dina Zarif Ensemble, is a collaboration between an Iranian immigrant singer and a San Francisco native harpist. The ensemble invites the listener on a journey that fuses Flamenco and Tango inspired rhythms and Iranian Folk tunes with deep concepts of immigration and homeland. Special guest and featured composer, Will Brahm. Learn More

Fanna-Fi-Allah Sufi Qawwali

(USA) - Music of the Mystics

Fanna-Fi-Allah hold the flame of traditional Sufi Qawwali music, with the blessings of their teachers; some of the greatest masters of the qawwali form in India and Pakistan. Through the beauty of the music they embody a universal message of devotion and tolerance that is crucial to our time. Learn More

Hafez Modirzadeh withPrasant Radhakrishnan

(USA) - Sounding Mouna

Hafez and Prasant's respective jazz explorations of Persian and Carnatic musical traditions have garnered serious critical acclaim. This concert marks their first collaboration with a highly personalized saxophone duo called Sounding Mouna that draws upon raga and dastgah concepts, and is guided by a deep empathy for each other’s music. Learn More

Interrogation Room

(USA)

The Interrogation Room is an immersive performance piece, grounded in whimsy and absurdity, that comments on and parodies the power dynamics involved with gaining citizenship, entry or membership to a new space. Inside a processing center for the independent state of Samchriavid, audience members are invited to choose from two levels of participation: applicant or spectator. Learn More

Kay DeMartini

(USA) - A Red Hot Stories

True stories of passion, house fires, and red hot chili peppers. Five storytellers, plus YOU! Put your name in the hat and tell your 3min Red Hot story (Red Hot candies included with price of admission). Learn More

Lua Hadar with Twist

(USA) - Our Common Humanity

Lua Hadar with her band Twist, live in concert, will premiere a new music video to their original song, Our Common Humanity. Coming from the traditions of theatre and cabaret, Hadar is a storyteller who gathers in the audience and takes them with her on a voyage, around the world and back through time. Learn More

Orchestra Gold with Mariam Diakité

(USA and Mali)

Orchestra Gold plays the celebrated style of big band music developed during Mali’s post-independence “golden” era, the 1960’s and 1970’s. The building blocks of Orchestra Gold’s compositions are folkloric songs, often told in parable, some of which have origins dating back hundreds of years. These songs contain inspiration, wisdom, deep insight, and have historically helped to uplift Malians beyond the harsh realities of daily life. Learn More

(Argentina) - Concert Hall Tango (2018, US Premiere)

After his very successful first visit to SF in 2017, Maestro Pablo Estigarribia returns to the SFIAF stage to present Concert Hall Tango, a virtuosic contemporary tango piano solo and ensemble works. Learn More

Ho-Nien endeavors to reconstruct his deceased lover through artificial intelligence and social media. Innovative, elegant and moving, Solo Date uses new media to explore loneliness and longing, desire, death, human loss and need. It also asks profound questions about amorality and ethics of the interactive technologies humankind increasingly relies on. Learn More

Samudra Dance Creations andSrishti Dance Academy

(USA) - The Caged Bird Sings (World Premiere)

The Caged Bird who Sings is a new Indian Classical Dance (Bharatanatyam) production inspired by women who were ground breaking in how they challenged the norms and embody all the living Devis that walk this earth. This production delves inside these stories of hope and courage by weaving dance, original music score and rich poetry. Learn More

San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company

(USA) - 5 x Lorca

5 x Lorca (Lorca by 5) is an aleatoric work by five flamenco choreographers based on works by celebrated Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. A passionate advocate of the art of flamenco, Andalusian tradition and liberal politics, Lorca’s work speaks unflinchingly of our collective humanity and the need to protect our liberty and freedom of expression. Learn More

The show explores a much needed whimsical journey of life, death, and rebirth through ephemeral images that evoke the passage of time and day, the shifting of the seasons. Using the manipulation of hand crafted materials, textures and exotic sculptural costume, her work creates a journey in which movement and stillness meet binding us together as in a web. Learn More

Loserville is a queering of The Breakfast Club, one of film director John Hughes’ seminal films. Scenes from the Club are embodied by the performers who play with gender and race using timing and comedic physicality to challenge the heteronormative terrain of this cinematic genre. Learn More

(USA) - Wit-ness Multi-media Exhibit, 2018

Wit-ness is a project that features film, photolithographs, burned paper works and other multi-media exhibits. The project includes an installation that represents the violent confrontation between identity and vulnerability. A narrative that addresses the concept of surveillance ties the exhibit together. Learn More

(USA) - El Cruce de Lenguajes (World Premiere)

El Cruce de Lenguajes (the crossing of Languages) has been created by Artistic Director Carola Zertuche for the San Francisco International Art Festival. The show features guest Artists from Spain, Mexico, South America, India and the USA. This production explores the common ground of humanity that is reflected in the art of flamenco. Learn More

(USA) - Tableaux (2017, Nothern California Premiere)

Tableaux features five women inquiring about confinement and freedom, while finding themselves constrained on an island of boxes, trapped by the constrictions of society and themselves. Faced with numerous challenges set before them the artists collectively harness their physicality to the extreme overcoming these limitations by empowering and igniting their resourcefulness.Learn More

Ushanjali Dance

(USA) - Divine Conversations (World Premiere)

An interpretative, exploration of compositions by Indian Saints and Mystics against MLK's speech "Down by the Riverside"! We go on a journey of finding the Self, from the Divine to the Abstract, through Indian Classical Dance, Bharatanatyam, Live Music, Narration, Visual Art and Multimedia. Learn More

ViBO Simfani

(USA)

ViBO Simfani bridges cultures by fusing elements of Latin jazz, folk, classical and Brazilian styles such as Bossa Nova and Choro. The end result is romantic, fun and mystical all at once. With the impeccable performance and arrangements of strings, woodwinds, guitar and percussion, Learn More

Vishwa Shanthi Performing Arts

(USA) - Samudra Manthan (World Premiere)

VSPA's grand operatic production uses the medium of Bharatanatyam, incorporating traditional elements, made more appealing for all ages and cultures and, providing clear English explanations to explore the inner spiritual meaning of this story from ancient texts where the Demigods and Demons, arch-rivals, are in competition for supremacy over the three worlds. Learn More

(USA) - Ritmo (World Premiere)

Emmy winner Yaelisa brings together an extraordinary and influential cast with artists from Spain and the U.S. In this performance, the ensemble explores the less commercial, more deeply felt flamenco of the street, of the common man with the powerful thread of rhythm. Learn More

Yohei Miyake

(Japan)

Yohei Miyake is a musician who ran for office in Japan’s congressional elections in 2013 and 2016. He named his political campaign the Election Festival and sang his progressive platform whilst playing the guitar. He drew tens of thousands of people to his public speeches and was dubbed “the Japanese Bob Marley with a Bernie Sanders ideology.” Learn More

(USA) - Miss Appropriation tries to _(Fill in the blank)_ (2017)

Miss Appropriation tries to _(Fill in the blank)_ is a journey where we follow one wannabe drag queen through her attempts to escape the mediocrity of her white suburban upbringing and become, not just famous, but influential. It explores issues of power systems, feminism, whiteness, millennial pink, and cultural misappropriation. Learn More